


No Undoing What Has Been Done

by Shadymissionary



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: After The Event, Angst, Death, Evolution, Fire, Gen, History, In Medias Res, Leader, Mystery, Nightmare, Rebellion, Revolution, Tragedy, Trainers, Traitor, Understanding, War, translator, uncovering the past
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:34:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29046954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadymissionary/pseuds/Shadymissionary
Summary: Pokemon speak like humans, and the inventor who brought this about was almost murdered.A tournament ends in a fiery eruption after a heretical idiot overcompensated.A loving trainer is being hunted by his best friend's army.And all anyone can think of is, "How did this happen?"There is no undoing what’s been done. No matter what everyone wants...
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	No Undoing What Has Been Done

**Author's Note:**

> Finally got the nerve to actually post something new here. Been workshopping this story for quite some time, and I felt I should bite the bullet and put it out there. Be sure to leave feedback if you enjoy the story or have any questions. I've been having trouble getting the motivation to write (Shout-Out to Green_Phantom_Queen for giving me the last boost I needed to put up a new story) and I would greatly appreciate comments as well as Kudos. There's more to the story, so feel free to ask any questions, and I hope I can answer them in the future.

Ash’s eyes shot open at the noise. Had it even been real? His head darted towards the entrance of the cave he was sleeping in. Was anything there? The grass wasn’t moving, nothing had come through there, but maybe something was flying nearby? He strained to remember the noise, but there was just silence outside the cave for what felt like an eternity. 

Eventually, Ash silently sighed. He wanted to cry or even just groan. Didn’t this use to be fun?

As quietly as he could, he stirred himself awake and did one more check, then another. Once he was satisfied nothing was listening for him, he weakly dug into his bag for the last bit of his rations. Accumulated crumbs of everything he’d been able to pack before he’d fled, and not a drop of water. Barely half a meal. 

His stomach groaned miserably. Yeah, this used to be fun. When he could still travel with other people. When he was looking for Pokemon, not hiding from them. Granted, Ash was looking for one certain Pokemon, but his hope of finding it was fading fast. 

He’d been lucky so far - there was no way the Pokemon weren’t hunting him down, not since…Kaichu had taken control. Was it wrong to be a little proud of that? 

Ash groaned to himself as he tried to eat. Where had it all gone wrong? OK, he knew where it all went wrong. There were two, maybe three places he could say where it had all gone wrong. But if he could find Celebi, he could…maybe make one of those occasions…not happen? His plan was fuzzy, he had to admit. But it was all he had now. 

Ash looked out of the cave, hoping the dark shadows would hide his face. This was the forest where he and…his friends had first seen Celebi. If he was anywhere, it was here. So where was he?

He’d been here for days now, watching the leaves slowly change color as he waited for a certain Pokemon and hid from all the others. He had no idea if they would be part of the army or not, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t take any chances…not when he only had one chance. 

Ash could see the shrine from here - that seemed like the most likely place Celebi would appear. But he hadn’t appeared…why would he appear? Celebi was supposed to foretell a bright future, and that was becoming extremely unlikely day by day…Had someone come here first? No, Ash would’ve noticed anything like that...

The bottom of the backpack yielded nothing else. Not even any more crumbs. Ash swallowed hard. Even with his best attempts at rationing, he was out of food. His last attempts at foraging had gone poorly - he couldn’t tell which berries were safe to eat or not, and meat was out of the question unless he wanted to try his luck against Pokemon…and he’d seen firsthand how well that would go. 

Ash winced hard. Could this get any worse?

Heavy footfalls close by in the forest. He definitely heard them this time. Ash hurriedly retreated into the shadows of the cave, hoping this wasn’t - 

“Ari ariados Ari?” a raspy voice asked. 

“I maybe have his scent. It is faint,” a gruff, electronic voice answered.

“Dos Ari ados.”

“I hope not. Boss Raichu want him alive.”

It was a search party, distant but coming closer. And from the electronic edge of the heavier voice, one was a Pokemon with the translator devices on. Ash cursed inwardly. It had certainly gotten worse. As bad as it could possibly be. 

“Ariados Ar. Ari dos ariados - ”

“Do not speak of Friendship Enhancer! I would close to thank that - Hold, have his scent!”

Ash cursed again. It was over. No way around it. He was in no condition to fight or run away…and Celebi was nowhere to be seen…so much for that last hope…

He had nothing left. Celebi wouldn’t come out for him…did it know he needed help? Maybe…he knew it wouldn’t work, but it would be better than being dragged out of this cave like a whimpering infant. 

No, he’d just walk - 

_THUMP_

Ash collapsed to the ground. His head was spinning, and he couldn’t quite get himself back up. He was a lot weaker than he thought he was...Ok, he’d crawl out. So much for dignity.

“Aria Dos…”

“See him!” The voices were supposedly coming closer, but it felt like they were fading into the distance...

Ash dragged himself to the shrine, not even bothering to look at his pursuers. When he figured he’d gotten close enough, he tried to say…he couldn’t even think of what he’d hoped to say. A heartfelt plea? A defiant scream? Begging, yelling, pleading, anything…but there wasn’t even water in his mouth for anything other than a dry…

“…help…”

…before he collapsed to the ground again, darkness overtaking him completely, to the point where he didn’t even hear the footfalls come near his head…

Instead, he heard snippets of his memories.

_Pikapi…_

_Science is so amazing!...Umm...so what do you want to talk about?_

_Maybe I like my own name…_

_Zapper? Zap? Oh. how about…_

_It’s like when they evolve with the translator on, the translator evolves too...Science is so amazing!_

_The nightmare in Hoenn continues, as the flames from Groudon’s release continue burning everyone in the stadium..._

_My name is Nido. This is the Rebellion. And what happened in Hoenn will never happen again._

_Remember what happened in Alamos Town? It’ll be just like that…Everything will go back to normal..._

_It’s n-n-nnnnnnn-n-alright, Ash, kzzkzzzzkzzzzzzzzzzk_

_I don’t understand...maybe...Do you want to? Ok...let's do it._

_I hope you can see this coming, you bastard…_

_Nobody will forgive you for this! NOBODY! You stupid, self-righteous bastard..._

_WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!_

_“...Was he where I thought he’d be?”_

Ash didn’t remember Kaichu saying that before...no, he was saying it now. Ash reluctantly worked his eyes open. He’d been brought to a sitting position leaning against a tree trunk, his hands bound with rope - no, spiderweb. Very tight spiderwebs.

“Yeah, he there. See yourself.”

Ash managed to move his neck up. His eyes managed to focus on a Holo Caster image of a Raichu’s head. He couldn’t make out his expression... he couldn’t tell if he was concerned, angry, or relieved. 

_“Of course. Is he fit to travel back to base, Mordun?”_

The image moved away - Ash finally registered that the Holo Caster was being held by a gruff-looking Ursaring, Mordun apparently. “Not yet, boss. Boy can barely walk, and I not carrying him out.” The slightly faulty translator on the bear’s neck explained. 

_“Very well. Get him fit to walk, then bring him to me. And don’t get him hurt. I want to... deal with him personally.”_

“Alright.” The Holo Caster clicked off, and the bear glared down at Ash. “You are lucky Boss Raichu still likes you, boy. Do nothing stupid.”

The Ursaring stomped off, and Ash took another look around. He pretended that it was to find an escape route, but he knew full well he wouldn’t get away. An Ariados was rummaging through his backpack, looking for something and finding nothing. Eventually, it gave up and walked next to the bear, who was pulling something out of a larger bag that wasn’t Ash’s. The bear must’ve been carrying it on him.

“Dos Ari Ariados,” The spider rasped contemptuously.

“No cage or ball? Thought he could _beg_ Celebi, I bet.” Despite the wonky translation, the bear still sounded like he was rolling his eyes.

Mordun quickly turned back around and walked towards Ash again. In his claws were two small plastic thermos’, one blue and one red. He kneeled down and opened the blue one, revealing clear water that the boy was all too happy to drink down. Ash guessed the red thermos contained soup.

“Drink and eat,” the bear ordered. “We not wait past sunset to walk. Got it?”

Ash swallowed - it was harder than he remembered - and nodded. “G-got it.” 

The Ursaring seemed satisfied and opened the red thermos. Ash was right about it being soup. It would’ve been near-tasteless under normal circumstances, but for Ash it was amazing. It felt good to actually ‘eat’ something.

Whatever the soup was, it gave him just enough energy to get himself moving again. They were able to start walking some time before sunset. Well, Mordun and his Ariados friend walked, and Ash would stumble along with them while being dragged by a line of the spider’s silk tied around his wrists. The journey out of the woods was a long, uncomfortable blur, giving Ash a lot of time to think.

He didn’t think about escape. He thought about why he wasn’t thinking about escape. Even if Kaichu ‘still liked him’, there was no way this was going to end well for him. But there was nowhere else to go. On the off-chance he somehow escaped and evaded every Pokemon the rebels sent after him, he’d just have to deal with the people he’d enraged when he’d destroyed the Friendship Enhancer. He wouldn’t be surprised if that scumbag Curtis had already proclaimed him a traitor to humanity who destroyed their ‘one chance for peace’ and got everyone else hunting him down. And if there was no Celebi to go back in time and fix things...well, maybe it was better he got taken by someone who ‘still liked him’. 

The sudden stop at the wood’s edge caught Ash off guard, shaking him out of his thoughts. When he looked up, he noticed several destroyed tanks with an ‘R’ symbol near the woods. The ‘True Trainers’ must be desperate if they were using Team Rocket’s infamously flimsy mechs to fight the rebels. And judging by how destroyed the tanks were, they still weren’t doing well at all. 

The Ariados skittered away, apparently having other things to do than continue supervising Ash. Mordun pulled a large cloth out of his bag and threw it over Ash’s head. “Keep head down like just another prisoner, you live to see your friend again. And _he_ not slice my head off.”

The makeshift hood weighed heavy on Ash’s head, but he didn’t make a move to remove it. “Y-yessir.”

“Keep moving,” The bear growled as he tugged the spider web. Ash obediently walked forward, being sure to keep his head down. Ash had to avoid tripping over melted, shattered, frozen, and rusted pieces of machinery. This is probably why there weren't so many Pokemon in the forest while Ash was looking for Celebi - they were all fighting back the ‘real trainers’, who were attacking a random forest…

Did they have the same idea Ash had? The boy internally winced at the thought that he’d shared an idea with those guys.

Once Ash got the hang of moving forward without tripping on shattered metal, the remaining trip was another long, uncomfortable blur. Eventually, he started hearing bitter mutterings of other people around him - other prisoners? - but he didn’t look up to check.

“..little ratlover ruined our shot at saving…”

“...some shot. Where’s that golden age of training Curtis promised…”

“...gonna kill that brat…”

“Which one?”

“...easy win, huh?”

“...traitor.”

“You should’ve died in that fire.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

 _That_ voice made Ash look up. They had arrived at what used to be a charming little village at the edge of the woods, now damaged and burned with battle scars. Scattered tents surrounded the area, replacing any buildings that were too flammable for safe use. Pokemon rebels milled about, dragging in broken equipment and beaten enemies. The crimson flag of the rebels - the bottom half of a Pokeball, with two lighting bolts shooting out to symbolize escape - flew proudly over the tallest standing building there. But that wasn’t what caught Ash’s attention.

A small group of human prisoners in Rocket uniforms and army fatigues were kneeling on the ground and had been tied up with spider webs. They were being patrolled by a familiar Luxray with a very old version of the translator. A good chunk of his fur had been burnt off, and one of his eyes had gone milky white with blindness. His old trainer wasn’t much better off.

Clemont had to take a moment away from looking scornfully down at the prisoner to take another breath from his oxygen mask. He hadn’t escaped that fire undamaged inside or out, with a nasty-looking old burn running down his neck. His body was covered by a mechanic’s suit emblazoned with the symbol of the rebels, but judging by the mechanical crutch he was leaning on, there was a lot more damage underneath.

Once Clemont had his breath back, he turned back to the prisoner who’d last spoken up. The man looked completely normal, not that Ash or Clemont cared in the slightest. 

“Perhaps if you told me which one of you SET that fire, maybe I can communicate your disappointment to him myself,” Clemont growled, his usual friendliness utterly absent from his voice.

“No way. We’re serving humanity...unlike _you_.”

“Serve humanity, huh?!” Clemont hissed, gesturing at the burn on his neck. “My little sister is still having trouble breathing, my dad is never going to walk again - and that was you FAILING.”

“Your device would have screwed everything up. Look around you. The world is out of whack thanks to _you_.”

“A trans-!” Clemont had to stop and take another wheeze from his oxygen mask. “GuHhhh...a _translator_ was going to destroy ‘the order of things’. And a mass mind control device is an acceptable way to bring things back to normal?”

“It was the only way. They’ll destroy us now that it’s gone!”

“They want to - hnnn - destroy you _because_ of it, you moron. If you hadn’t turned on the device...hm?”

Ash froze when he realized Clemont was looking past his prisoner and looking towards _him_. He resisted the urge to cry out ‘I didn’t know that, I thought it would just make everyone stop fighting, Curtis lied to me…’ and turned away instead, hoping he wouldn’t have to look more than one old friend in the eye today. 

Mordun just tugged the spider line. “Delivery.” the bear growled.

Clemont sighed. “Okay...I’ll let Kaichu know. Bring him inside.” Was that disappointment or relief in his voice?

Ash was swiftly pulled away, towards the tall building with the flag. The best that Ash could tell, it used to be the town hall. Mordun brushed past the Rhydon guards standing where the front doors would’ve been, leading Ash into a darkened building with rebel graffiti written all over it. 

A few more turns and Ash was shoved into a dimly-lit room with nothing inside but a table and a small chair. Mordun cut the spider line connecting him and Ash and yanked off the cloth hood, but didn’t release the bonds around Ash’s wrist. “Sit. Stay. Boss will be here in one minute.” He then shut the door behind him, and Ash could hear a lock being turned. Were they worried about him trying to escape, or someone trying to get to him?

It didn’t matter. With nothing else to do but wait, Ash sat down in the chair, surprisingly relieved that he finally got to sit down. That relief was short-lived, however, as he soon heard the door clicking open. He knew who it was.

Kaichu stepped into the room, his long tail snaking itself around the doorknob and closing it shut behind him. The Raichu was wearing a small set of red armor, the chest-plate emblazoned with the half-ball symbol. The ‘evolved’ translator was still on his neck, the sight of which made Ash wince. On his head was a small metal ‘crown’ shaped like the rebels’ symbol, designating him as the leader.

“Don’t get up.” Kaichu jumped on top of the table. Ash did his best to turn away from his gaze, but Kaichu’s paw grabbed him by the chin and made him face his old friend. His expression was completely unreadable, Ash couldn’t tell what his old friend was thinking when he looked at him. “Mordun didn’t knock you around, did he? He can be rather rough,” Kaichu asked plainly.

“N-no,” Ash replied.

_“Good.”_

Kaichu’s other paw whipped across Ash’s cheek in the blink of an eye. Ash winced at the pain - Kaichu’s claws had scratched him just enough to draw blood. 

“You little _coward_. Running away? Using a legendary to get what you want, just like that heretic that nearly killed May and Max? What were you hoping to do?” Kaichu hissed in Ash’s face when he sat back up.

“...I was trying to _fix_ it,” Ash tried to defend himself.

Kaichu scoffed. “Ok. How? What would you have gone back to fix?”

Ash had his answer ready, and he tried to look like he knew what he was going to do. “The Friendship Enhancer. I would’ve stopped it before…”

“Before you helped turn it on. Before you...hhrrrgh. You’d fix that, but not everything else? Everything that came before?” Kaichu demanded. “Like, say, what happened in Hoenn? That _heretic_ set everything ablaze. Nearly killed May, Max, hundreds of other people. Why wouldn’t you try and stop _that_ too?”

Ash froze. “N-no...I’d fix that too…”

Kaichu shook his head. “That’s hundreds of miles away. Celebi can travel time, not space, and only so much at once. And how _would_ you stop him? Were you going to run all the way to the Sealed Cavern to stop…” Kaichu winced as though acknowledging Shamus’ existence was physically painful. “... _him_ from catching Groudon? Or just stop him from releasing him in the stadium? And what else would’ve happened on the way there?”

Ash swallowed hard, rubbing the spot where Kaichu had scratched him. He really hadn’t thought this through after all.

Kaichu seemed to sigh, turning away from Ash and rubbing his forehead. “Of course, I’ll bet the very next thing you’d try to fix was the fire that nearly killed Clemont and Bonnie. That I can understand. But did you know about the first fire?”

Ash blinked in confusion. “The… _first_ fire?”

Kaichu nodded. “Several years ago. A Dr. Jacob Deacon, the one who initially invented the translator that Clemont perfected. Killed both him and the first test subject, Cleffaye. Gave Nido his...motivation to set this rebellion in motion.” 

The rebel leader shook his head. “You didn’t know about them. Saving them would’ve done more to stop...all _this_ than just Clemont and Bonnie, but you could only think about the people _you_ knew.”

The Raichu turned around, a frustrated look on his face. “And so many other little things boiling in the background. Team Magma. Team Rocket. All those times the Gods got captured. And so many other things you didn’t - couldn’t - know about. There was no way you could’ve fixed _everything_ and made it all better. No, the only thing you’d have been able to do - could _think_ of doing - was make things a bit better for yourself. Take away that one awful thing you helped happen and wipe it out of history. So whatever happens to the world, _you_ could still be the Good Trainer.” 

Ash’s head fell down. Kaichu was right...but something caught his attention. “...you’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

Kaichu just let out an exasperated sigh. “You weren’t the only one with that idea. A lot of us had been...debating how to fix this damned mess for months, ever since the Hoenn tournament incident.” The anger in his voice seemed to be gone, replaced with bitter resignation. “Same with the humans. You saw the tanks outside the woods. But it’s not just here. Any of the gods that could…’fix’ things are gone.”

“Missing?” Ash swallowed, overtaken by fear. “Did they…”

“No. No-one’s captured them. They left on their own.” Kaichu sighed. “Celebi, Dialga, Palkia...all of them have either vanished or gone so far underground that nobody will be finding them. From what I’ve been told, they vanished months ago… I guess they were worried they’d get caught like Groudon did.” Kaichu stepped towards Ash again. “There’s no getting out of this. No going back in time, no hopping another dimension, no god’s gratitude to make things easy...I have to see this through. We _all_ do.”

Kaichu’s paw pulled Ash’s face towards him again, his eyes boring into Ash’s soul. “So, if you truly want to make things right, you are going to help me.” 

Before Ash could say anything, the Raichu’s tail rapped twice against the door. The door opened to let a Beheeyem carrying a glass of water into the room. Kaichu let Ash’s face go as the Beeheyem dropped the glass on the table, and then floated directly behind him and took the back of his head in his...digits? Ash never understood what he was supposed to call those blinking lights. Whatever they were, Beheeyem rested his other hand on Ash’s shoulder, showing Kaichu his other hand.

“Have a drink. We’re going to have a little talk, and B’s going to make sure you’re telling the truth,” Kaichu explained. “Nothing complicated...green is truth, red is a lie, yellow is you holding something back. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes.” Out of the corner of his eye, Ash noticed Beheeyem’s green light blinking. He took a drink of water with his bound hands, bringing some water back to his mouth. “Um...why can’t you…”

“Just read your mind? It’s a lot harder than you think. A mind is too cluttered, it needs...focus to get any useful information. B doesn’t need to read your internal pity party. Just answers to my questions. And… _try_ not to lie to me.” 

Kaichu’s tail, that lightning-shaped blade at the end of a long whip, slithered right in front of Ash’s face and poked him in the cheek. It didn’t draw any blood, but Ash knew it could easily do that. He’d seen what Kaichu did to Curtis’ bodyguards.

Kaichu tried to smile scarily and failed. Ash just swallowed hard. He didn’t want to gamble that Kaichu was bluffing...not in front of a fellow rebel. 

“Now…” Kaichu sat down on the table, trying to look calm even as his tail flickered about intently and his claws dug into the table. “First question. What did _Curtis_ promise you?” 

This is going to hurt. Ash winced. He thought about that precise look of sincerity he thought he saw in Curtis’ black eyes that day when the youngest world champion had asked Ash to help him stop the rebellion once and for all. 

“He uh...told me it would be like Oracion at...um, Alamos Town. That all the device was going to do was...prevent Pokemon from targeting...people. I think he said that it would...remind everyone how important friendship was. Make everyone friends again.” Ash shivered. “He was...really convincing. A-at least, I thought he was. At the time, I mean. And I...I was scared, I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt, and I...I wanted everything to go back to normal.”

Ash couldn’t help but glance over at Beheeyem’s other arm. Green and yellow blinking back and forth...Ash honestly wasn’t sure where he was ‘holding something back’. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Kaichu made a noise that seemed to be somewhere between a growl and sigh. “..And this ‘normal’ you wanted to go back to...back to before the translator was made? When you didn’t know anything?.”

Ash nodded fitfully. “I...not quite…”

Kaichu frowned again. “Tell me if this is the image you had in your head. Me, and the others, smiling up at you after we win another fight for you. You smile back, being the good trainer that you are…thanking us for all our efforts...” For a split second, the Raichu seemed wistful, before regaining his harsh demeanor. “Giving us all a _big hug_...while you take your badge or your trophy or whatever and smile proudly. And you go on to do the same for as long as you want to, never needing to ask our opinions on the matter because we’ll follow you anywhere. And no-one would blame you because we don’t speak the same language, really. Am I right?”

Ash swallowed hard, trying not to nod. In the end, he had to give in, and a green light flashed next to Ash’s head. “Y-yeah.”

Kaichu sighed sadly. “...of course I am. And you thought it had worked.”

“...yes.”

The Raichu suddenly became very tense. “And when you thought there was a problem - thought that I was trying to tell you something but couldn’t - you thought the issue was Clemont’s translator.”

A massive lump formed in Ash’s throat. “I - I - I…”

Kaichu kept going, glaring at the tip of his tail. “You didn’t think something was wrong with how I acted. You didn’t think that machine was suspicious. You just thought the device wasn’t speaking properly. And you had an idea how to fix it.”

Ash knew it wouldn’t go well, but he had to defend himself. “I thought...I asked you.”

“ _And it didn’t occur to you that I shouldn’t have said YES?!_ ” Kaichu let out a furious snarl, his tail slicing a chunk off the table without him noticing. “You _KNEW_ how I felt! You knew _WHY_ I felt that way! But that didn’t occur to you until **AFTER**! And that _STILL_ didn’t get you to realize what the device was doing!”

“It DID!” Ash cried desperately. 

The angry Raichu growled at the yellow light, struggling to compose himself. “Apparently, it wasn’t enough. So, what **was**?”

Ash swallowed hard. His throat had gone dry, and he hurriedly took a drink. “I...I...I really did think…something was wrong, I swear...I wanted to talk to...Curtis, and I...”

The boy started shuddering, and this time it wasn’t Kaichu he was scared of. “I...found him. And Nido.”

Kaichu blinked in surprise, the anger draining from his face. “You saw them?”

Ash nodded fitfully. “They didn’t see me, I was on the other side of a locked door... Nido was...smiling like you were and Curtis was...controlling some kind of drill or something, saying how he hoped Nido was seeing this coming, how he shouldn’t have tried to screw everything up, that he wasn’t going to ruin everything he’d worked for and…he took the drill and…” The boy started shivering, terrified. “He...Nidoking’s… _eyes_ …I couldn’t...”

Kaichu held up his paw. For a second it looked like he was going to put it on Ash’s shoulder, but stopped. “It’s...I can guess what happened. Don’t think about it. Just...just tell me. What happened next?”

Ash swallowed hard, willing that memory away. “I ran out into the hall and...realized what the device did and...I...I thought about the stone and...what you must’ve been thinking when I...I threw up. Hard.”

The Raichu’s expression relaxed, but only slightly. “And that’s when you decided to destroy the machine. Try to...redeem yourself.”

Ash slowly nodded. “Yeah...better late than never, right?” 

Kaichu didn’t say anything, just looked hard at Ash. 

Ash nodded, realizing his old friend wanted him to get on with the story. “Yeah...I was going to smash the entire device with my bare hands...well, with a crowbar I found lying around. Aheh… so I went to the generator room, tore open one of the panels and smashed...something that looked important really hard...and, um…”

“And?”

Ash groaned, “...T-t-that’s all it took. The lights started flickering, and then everything went dark. I remember thinking ‘This thing’s practically a _building_ , it should take more than that to...fix everything’. But no. My big redemptive act could’ve been done by a clumsy janitor or a burnt fuse.” _Would’ve made me feel a lot better if it had been harder,_ Ash internally complained. 

Kaichu let out a small chuckle, despite himself. “Heh...that’s what you get for throwing together a prototype with _Team Rocket_ parts.”

The boy sighed. “Uh-huh. So...I heard the roaring outside, with everybody waking up. They sounded...furious. Beyond furious.”

What remained of Kaichu’s smile evaporated, his fangs grinding together as he recalled his feelings that day. “We were furious. Everything we knew, everything we [i]were[/i], just...perverted. Turned into something...sick. We were supposed to follow trainers we respected, who treated us well. That infernal device made us into grinning puppets, and we couldn’t do anything but watch. After that, _none_ of us will submit to another human again.”

“...I’m sorry.” The words tumbled out of Ash’s mouth before he could stop them.

Kaichu’s incredulous eyes looked straight into Ash’s soul. “You’re **sorry**.”

Ash nodded, tears forming in his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you when I had the chance. I’m sorry I helped him. I’m sorry I...I...ruined everything. Because I thought I was the Good Trainer and I was scared of no longer being that...I thought I knew you better than you for a second and I was selfish and stupid and I... I tried to run away and...cheat a solution for myself...I can’t fix this, and I am so sorry…”

The Raichu staring back at him looked as though he was ready to slash his face again for a moment, but a glint of green in the corner in his eyes stopped him. For the longest few seconds of Ash’s life, Kaichu just...stared hard at him, until Ash had to look away from his intense gaze. He didn’t want to see Kaichu’s expression, whatever he was feeling.

The rebel leader took a deep breath and sighed. “...Alright.” he said firmly, the closest thing to forgiveness he could give at the moment. “The machine broke down. You heard us outside, roaring.”

“...I heard your speech. About how the true evil was...inside that building. How you would avenge Nido and ensure that this will never happen again.” Ash chuckled. “A-at least I think that’s what you said. I got...distracted. By...uh. Curtis.”

“That bastard?” Kaichu asked pointedly. “I’m surprised you didn’t hit him.”

Ash shrugged, “I guess I was still in shock, but...yeah. He ran up to me, didn’t release what I’d done for a minute. He started jabbering about how something had gone wrong, that you were all going to...rip us apart...and that he had an escape route… some kind of teleporter...”

“Did he say where the route went?” Kaichu blinked. 

“...no, b-but he said that there was a backup plain he had in case the operation went south, we just had to pick up something in Azalea Town...then he saw the crowbar in my hand…” Ash paused for a second, grabbing another drink. “...and he started screaming at me about how everyone would know what I did, how nobody was going to forgive me either way, and that there was no way to fix things and-”

“I understand.” Kaichu interrupted in a surprisingly gentle voice. “That was what inspired you to hunt down...Celebi…” Kaichu’s face furrowed as he began thinking something over. “...huh…Azalea Town…”

“...yeah, that’s what he said before he ran off...I should’ve stopped him…”

“That’s enough. I’ve...heard enough apologies from you.” He didn’t say this coldly or warmly, simply stating how things were as he gestured to the Beheeyem to release Ash’s head. 

The boy sank into his seat, realizing that Kaichu had everything he wanted from him. “...what happens now?” he weakly asked.

“We hunt down that bastard, make sure nobody like him can control us ever again, and beat everyone who gets in our way,” the rebel leader answered, standing up on the table. It felt like he and Beheeyem were towering over Ash. “And as for you...we’ll put you somewhere safe, where nobody can hurt you and you can’t…well. I think that’s fair, don’t you?”

Ash could only reluctantly nod. “...yeah, that’s... fair.” There was nothing else for him right now. 

Kaichu smiled slightly and nodded to the Beheeyem. The last thing Ash saw before soothing darkness overtook him was an irresistible showcase of blinking lights in front of his eyes. At least he didn’t have any more dreams...


End file.
